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rio, days 7-8

Thursday of our time in Rio was a national holiday, so there was no school for the kids. Because they were free all day, Jason, Kristin, and Jeremy had planned a field trip for us and 25 of their kids to a sitio, a site about 45 minutes outside of Rio. A sitio (there were many of them) is rented out for large group events. This one had a large soccer field, a sand volleyball court, a pool, ping pong table, snooker table, playground, and a large grilling/ eating area. And was decorated with lots of gnomes and other silly garden art.

We spent the majority of the day playing with the kids- soccer, ultimate (we won this time!), volleyball, making jewelry and being crafty, flying kites. [I don't think I mentioned what a big thing kite-flying is in Brasil. Just like in The Kite Runner. Kids showed us their hands where they were cut and scarred from the glue/glass on their strings.] We also did another couple of skits, silly and serious, and Angie shared her testimony. And of course, had an American BBQ for lunch- hamburgers and hot dogs! The kids seemed to have a great time- they really seemed to enjoy getting out of the city and just seemed freer.

At the end of the day, we all piled on their bus to say goodbye, as we would not see them on Friday. We returned to Jeremy's apartment and packed up to head to a hotel at the beach that night for debriefing Friday morning.

We stayed at an awesome hotel in LeBlon- the next up and coming beach, adjacent to Ipanema. Friday morning, we went up on its roof to debrief from the week. That took most of our morning, by which time it had started raining. Thankfully, our only rain of the week, except for the drive out to the sitio. But, as we had the afternoon free, it did put a damper on our plans to be tourists. So we headed to the mall to stay dry. As did everyone else, it seemed.

Around 5pm, Angie, Laura, and I headed to the rodovario to catch a bus to start our vacation, while everyone else headed to the airport to catch their flight home.

posted by CP @ 9:55 AM 0 thoughts